Less than a week after Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup, a group of Spartak Moscow fans twice caused the temporary abandonment of a Champions League game in Slovakia on Wednesday evening.
The referee in charge of the MSK Zilina and Spartak Moscow Group F game stopped the game twice in the first ten minutes after Russian fans began throwing flare and fireworks on to the pitch.
Spartak players attempted to reason with the fans. The game has now restarted.
The incident comes just a day after some 1,000 Spartak Moscow supporters blocked traffic on a busy road in the north of the Russian capital after the death of a well-known fan in a brawl.
The fans blocked Leningradskoye Highway - one of the city's busiest roads - to demand a thorough investigation into the death of Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov, killed in a street brawl in the capital early on Monday.
